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Review : This Film Is Not Yet Rated on DVD
Last week I saw one of the coolest documentaries that I have ever seen. This Film is Not Yet Rated is an in depth detailed look at the Motion Picture Association of America and their questionable film rating practices.
It also has an investigation in to who are the secret raters that work at the MPAA and their questionable and inconsistent calls in rating films. In every other film rating organization around the world the raters are known to the public and there is some level of transparency. This film hired a private investigator to stake out the MPAA offices and to find out just who the raters are and if the MPAA has been truthful in their claims that the raters are your typical average red blooded American parent out to protect the youth of America from moral corruption.
There are some really eye opening interviews with filmmakers, Kevin Smith of Clerks, Matt Stone of Orgazmo and South Park, John Waters,of Pink Flamingos, Mary Harron of American Psycho, Kimberly Peirce of Boys Don't Cry, and Jamie Babbit of But I'm A Cheerleader.
The film also went into how the MPAA is funded by the big studios and how they in turn receive preferential treatment in getting feedback in order to get their films approved. A big studio picture will get a detailed list of what to change to get a better rating while the indy films change lists are vague or blank. Matt Stone described how hard they were to work with on his indy film Orgazmo but how they were extremely detailed and helpful when he was making South Park and Team America the movie for a major studio.
It explored how the MPAA claims that there is no set rules or precedence in rating films. Just because the depiction of content was kosher in one movie is no guarantee that it will be acceptable in another flick.
They go into how the MPAA considers sex much more objectionable than extreme violence for example in American Psycho they had to take out some sex talk but all the naked chainsaw murders and bloody axe murdering was totally a-ok. They also make a pretty damn condemning case about how the MPAA will rate any gay sexual content much higher than the exact same acts being done by two hetro characters. There is a side by side comparison montage of NC-17 stuff by gay characters on the left and R rated straight characters showing more stuff on the right.
How a rating affects the distribution and marketing of a film is laid out but they can't justify how major DVD retailers like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster will distribute un-rated version of films that contain sexual content but if they will not touch NC-17 rated film that might contain the exact same stuff but just submitted the film through the MPAA rating process.
The last part of the documentary was the best. They took an early cut of the film with all the criticism and staking out the MPAA building and submitted it to be rated by the secret MPAA raters. The shit storm that ensued was classic and I was blown away about how the supposed anti-pirates MPAA made an un-authorized copy of his film for their own use against the film makers permission and in violation of the very copyright laws the MPAA bought off congress to get.
The film make a good case about how the MPAA's G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 system has logical holes big enough to drive a truck through and has not done a very good job of helping both the filmmakers and the public. They are on the verge of becoming obsolete in the modern media marketplace and this was a pretty kick ass film about it. Absolutely everybody that gives a crap about the art of cinema should see this flick. Thank God Netflix has no problem with un-rated but kick as films such as this.
Jake at February 13, 2007 
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Comments
personally I make it a mission to go and see anything these guys hate.... http://www.capalert.com/capreports/southpark.htm that's my censor
Posted by: alasdair at February 16, 2007 3:40 AM
I actually love those guys. They are completely nuts and I have to admire their devotion. However an alternative to the MPAAs rating system would be a multi-dimensional grid like the ones that CAP Reports uses and a list of content in a movie.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at February 16, 2007 10:24 AM
I'll have to toss that one on my Netflix list.
Posted by: willisreed at March 1, 2007 3:07 PM
